Prison status classifications (municipal, provincial, Insular)
- Section 1 fixes “municipal prisoners” as:
- (a) persons detained or sentenced for violation of municipal or city ordinances;
- (b) persons detained pending trial before justices of the peace or municipal courts;
- (c) persons sentenced to payment of a fine where the subsidiary imprisonment for nonpayment does not exceed nine month, or sentenced to arresto menor or arresto menor and line (wording appears in the Act) even where the person is subject to subsidiary imprisonment;
- (d) persons sentenced to imprisonment not exceeding thirty days; and
- (e) persons detained by order of a justice of the peace or judge of a municipal court pending preliminary investigation, until the court remands them to the Court of First Instance.
- Section 3 fixes “provincial prisoners” as:
- (a) persons detained pending preliminary investigation before a judge of the Court of First Instance or pending trial before the Court of First Instance;
- (b) persons sentenced by a court of original jurisdiction to arresto mayor or presidio correctional or prision correctional for a period not exceeding one year, or to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred pesos, or to both, including cases where subject to subsidiary imprisonment, with subsequent status determined under Section 7; and
- (c) persons sentenced to imprisonment more than thirty days and not exceeding one year.
- Section 5 fixes “Insular prisoners” as prisoners who are neither municipal nor provincial, with these statutory inclusions:
- all persons sentenced for violation of immigration or Chinese exclusion laws, the customs and navigation laws, or Act Numbered Fourteen hundred and eleven (prohibiting exportation of silver coins from the Philippine Islands), whatever the sentence imposed.
Who maintains prisoners by status
- Section 2 requires that municipal prisoners be maintained by the city or municipality where the offense was committed, except as otherwise provided.
- Section 4 requires that provincial prisoners be maintained by the province where the offense was committed, except as otherwise provided.
- Section 6 requires that Insular prisoners be maintained out of the appropriation for the Bureau of Prisons, except as otherwise provided.
- Section 6 provides a specific carve-out: no prisoner already under sentence in a provincial jail with less than one year to serve, after deducting allowances earned for good conduct up to the date of the Act, shall be deemed an Insular prisoner.
- Section 17 provides that the city of Manila shall be considered both a province and a municipality for purposes of the Act.
Status change on appeal (no retroactivity)
- Section 7 provides that pending an appeal, a prisoner’s status shall not be changed.
- Section 7 provides that when, on appeal or review by a higher court, the prisoner’s status fixed by prior classification changes due to an increase or diminution of sentence, the responsibility for maintenance due to that change:
- takes effect from the date of judgment of the higher court; and
- shall not be retroactive.
Transportation and guarding expenses
- Section 8 allocates expense for transporting prisoners:
- actual and necessary expenses for transportation and guarding and subsistence of prisoners from municipal jails to provincial jails (except Constabulary escorts, if any) are paid from the funds of the proper municipality.
- Section 9 allocates expense for transporting Insular prisoners:
- actual and necessary expenses for transportation, guarding, and subsistence of Insular prisoners from provincial jails to an Insular prison, reformatory, or Insular penal institution (except Constabulary escort expenses, if any) are borne by the proper province.
- return transportation of discharged Insular prisoners from their place of confinement to their homes is paid out of the appropriation for the Bureau of Prisons.
- Section 10 allocates expenses for transfers between Insular penal institutions/settlements:
- reasonable and actual expenses for transportation, guarding, and subsistence are paid out of the appropriation for the Bureau of Prisons; and
- when prisoners are guarded by Constabulary escorts, escort expenses are borne by the Bureau of Constabulary.
- Section 16 allocates expense for transfers and returns under Section 14:
- expenses for transportation, guarding, subsistence, care, and maintenance of any prisoner transferred to an Insular prison or penal institution or returned to any province for trial under Section 14 are a charge against the treasury of the province from which the prisoner was transferred, with the amount fixed by the Secretary of Public Instruction subject to the Governor-General’s approval.
Insular penal institutions, transfers, and commitment
- Section 10 empowers the Governor-General to designate and establish Insular penal institutions or settlements.
- Section 10 authorizes the Governor-General to direct the transfer of Insular prisoners between Insular penal institutions, with expenses paid under the expense rules in Section 10.
- Section 13 authorizes provincial boards, with approval of the Governor-General, to direct confinement of municipal prisoners in provincial jails when municipal jails are lacking, inadequate, or insecure.
- Section 13 requires the maintenance cost for municipal prisoners confined in provincial jails to be charged to the municipality to which the prisoners pertain at a per capita rate per day not exceeding twenty centavos, fixed by the provincial board.
- Section 14 authorizes the Governor-General, whenever he finds a provincial or municipal jail’s conditions insanitary or insecure or whenever public interests require, to order:
- commitment/transfer of all or any prisoners to an Insular prison or penal institution; and
- direction of prisoners to provincial or municipal jails whenever expedient.
- Section 14 provides that an order of transfer may include prisoners:
- now serving sentence in any provincial or municipal jail; and
- now awaiting preliminary examination or trial.
- Section 14 requires that the order of commitment, along with a copy of the transfer order, accompany prisoners and be delivered to the officer in charge of the penal institution receiving them.
- Section 15 requires that proceedings to release on bail for prisoners awaiting trial transferred under Section 14 be brought in the court where the case is pending; if bail is accepted, the prisoner is released by the court with jurisdiction.
- Section 15 provides that if the released prisoner so elects, he shall be returned to the province from which he was transferred at the cost of the Insular Government, payable out of the appropriation for the Bureau of Prisons.
Prison labor and assignments
- Section 11 allows compulsory work for finally convicted able-bodied male prisoners in and about:
- prisons, jails, public buildings, grounds, roads, and other public works of the Insular Government, provinces, or municipalities.
- Section 11 provides that prison labor is under general regulations prescribed by the Director of Prisons with the approval of the Secretary of Public Instruction.
- Section 11 exempts persons over sixty years of age from the labor compulsion.
- Section 11 allows compulsion for prisoners pending determination of appeals to police their cells for hygienic or sanitary reasons.
- Section 11 provides that finally convicted female prisoners may be assigned to work suitable to their sex and physical condition.
- Section 12 authorizes the Governor-General, by executive order, to detail finally convicted Insular prisoners to work in any part of the Islands upon any public work specified by him.
- Section 12 requires the Secretary of Public Instruction to fix the terms and conditions under which any branch of government may receive the labor of such Insular prisoners.
Bail for transferred pretrial prisoners
- Section 15 provides that bail proceedings are brought in the court where the pending case is pending.
- Section 15 provides that upon acceptance of bail, the prisoner is released by order of the court accepting bail.
- Section 15 provides that election to return the prisoner to the originating province is done at the cost of the Insular Government from the Bureau of Prisons appropriation.
Special prisoner rules for minors
- Section 21 amends Section 3 of Act Numbered Fourteen hundred and thirty-eight to allow transfer of minor prisoners currently confined in Bilibid Prison or in any provincial jail:
- males under sixteen at time of commitment; or
- females under eighteen at time of commitment.
- Section 21 provides that minors may be transferred by executive order of the Governor-General for the unexpired portion of their sentences to institutions mentioned in Section 1.
- Section 21 requires the Governor-General, before transferring a minor, to consider the minor’s religion and that of the parents or next of kin, and to obtain approval of the parents or next of kin; it also restricts transfer without approval to institutions not under the control and supervision of the religions sect or denomination to which the minor and parents/next of kin belong.
- Section 21 provides that any minor transferred may be retransferred by executive order to the prison or jail from which he was transferred to serve the unexpired portion of his sentence.
- Section 21 requires transportation, guarding, and subsistence expenses for such minors to be borne by:
- the province where the minor was sentenced if they are provincial prisoners; or
- the appropriation for the Bureau of Prisons if they are Insular prisoners.
- Section 22 amends Section 5 of Act Numbered Fourteen hundred and thirty-eight:
- institutions receiving minors must adopt rules and regulations (subject to the approval of the Secretary of Public Instruction) for safe custody, instruction, and educational training; and
- such institutions are under the supervision and control of the Secretary of Public Instruction with respect to the minors.
Savings, clarifications, and maintenance responsibility
- Section 18 provides that nothing in Act No. 1703 changes:
- Section 10 of Act Numbered Four hundred and thirteen, which permits provinces having no jails to arrange detention of provincial prisoners in other provinces’ jails and defray maintenance expenses; and
- Section 11 of Act Numbered Four hundred and thirteen, providing for detention of fugitives from justice and maintenance.
- Section 19 provides that nothing in Acts Numbered Fifteen hundred and twenty-four and Fifteen hundred and sixty-one on conditional pardons and paroles, and nothing in Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and thirty-three on diminution of sentences for good behavior, changes:
- the original status of prisoners; and
- the responsibility for their maintenance as fixed by Act No. 1703.
- Section 20 amends Subsection (c) of Section 25 of Act Numbered Fourteen hundred and seven by requiring calculation of actual costs for guarding, maintaining, and supervising prisoners confined in Bilibid Prison who are charges on provincial/municipal or city of Manila funds:
- compute by taking total current annual expense of Bilibid Prison (or any other institution where confined), deducting receipts from manufactures made by prisoners, and obtaining an average net cost per capita.
- require separate sets of books for each penal institution, and require each province/municipality/city of Manila to pay for its prisoners detained in any Insular prison or penal institution according to the per capita fixed under the formula.
Repeals and procedural enactment
- Section 23 repeals:
- Acts Numbered Five hundred and sixteen and Nine hundred and sixty-two;
- Section 25(e) of Act Numbered Fourteen hundred and seven; and
- Section 13 of Act Numbered Four hundred and thirteen, as amended by Section 1 of Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and eighty-seven; and
- all other acts or parts of acts inconsistent with Act No. 1703.
- Section 24 authorizes expedited passage of the bill in the public interest under Section 2 of “An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws” passed September 26, 1900.
- Section 25 fixes effectivity as on its passage.